Lift Brands, the parent company of Twin Cities-based Snap Fitness and Steele Fitness, announced Tuesday that six new YogaFit Studio franchises are in development for the Twin Cities.
 
Chanhassen-based Snap Fitness established Lift Brands as an umbrella parent company for its various fitness businesses in February.
 
In 2013, Lift Brands announced plans to sell 1,000 franchise licenses for the YogaFit brand within the United States over the next five years.
 
A spokeswoman for Lift Brands said the locations for the six new Twin Cites locations aren’t finalized yet but will be announced in the near future.
 
Lift Brands launched its first YogaFit franchise location in Excelsior last May—which is currently the only YogaFit studio in operation. The company said it costs $89,000 to open a YogaFit studio and a franchise can be owned with a cash investment of $35,000.
 
“Since we began offering franchise sales in late July, we have been fielding hundreds of inquiries from people interested in the YogaFit Studio concept and intrigued by our new model, which offers yoga at an unprecedented price point for the consumer,” Peter Taunton, Lift Brands’ founder and CEO, said in a statement. “We’re especially excited about the scalability of this model and the fact that we can offer those interested in owning their own yoga studio on a viable platform complete with financing assistance.”
 
Taunton, the winner of an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award, founded Snap Fitness in 2003 and has helped expand that business to roughly 2,000 clubs either open or in development in 15 countries.